Alberto is back

The Tinkoff-Saxo team celevrated a successful day at the Tirreno-Adriatico race. Alberto Contador, having ridden away from his rivals 32km to go, scored an important victory and became the new leader of the race. Roman also delivered an above-par result as he crossed the finish line in 7^th place and sits in third position overall, trailing Quintana by seven seconds.

“At the end of the day, everything turned out well for us. Before the stage I spoke with Alberto about the game plans and it worked out perfectly, even though his breakaway companions were not quite interested in pulling,” he revealed. “Last year many critics wrote Alberto off but he has shown in the past two days that he is back. I think that less travelling at the start of the season did him really good and he had more time for practicing,” Roman said.

Contador attacked on a climb with 32km remaining and Roman seemed to be in trouble. “I wasn’t able to keep up with those six rides who were following Alberto. But I got myself into a small group that was keen on riding and with 3km to go we caught the Peraud´s group, just before the steep climb. The racing began again.”

The riders had to cope with an extremely steep climb with ramps of up to 25%. “I zigzagged almost all the way up, it was really brutal. Luckily, it straightened up a little bit with 800m to go and I felt good in the finale. I managed to pass around five riders,” said Roman.

Tomorrow a flat stage is on the menu for the peloton and on Tuesday the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race ends with 9km time trial. “Tomorrow we will have to control the race but I suppose that the sprinter´s teams will join us because it will be their last chance for a bunch sprint. Then the time trial comes and I believe that everything will turn out fine for us.”